My sister's PC will not boot and comes up with a missing shell32.dll.

Is there a way of re-installing this dll, without resorting to a OS re-install?

Thanks,
Dan

 

The PC is running Win XP Home Edition

 

you maybe able to but no guarantees it'll work! First you may need a .cab viewer as M$ tend to compress all their files into cab files. Then having copied it to windows\system32 directory you'll need to register it using regsvr32 shell32.dll

good luck!

 

Thanks for the advice Gary, but this sounds a bit technical for me, how do I get into the system to do all this? All there is is a blank screen.

 

Try this link:-

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dl....shtml?shell32

it will also tell you where to place the file.

 

DJ140 try booting XP into safe mode F8 on bootup, so u can copy the file from a floppy disk from that website shown above. Then when youre in XP just copy the file from floppy to c:\windows\system32, then reboot normally. Failing that you can boot to a dos prompt, but u need a floppy bootdisk for that, from www.bootdisk.com. Just a win98 bootdisk is sufficient, just enough to get a dos prompt, where u can copy the file from the floppy to your \windows\system32 folder. In DOS then commands are:

Assuming XP home is installed on c:\ and shell32.dll is on a floppy disc.

a:
copy shell32.dll c:\windows\system32
c:
cd \windows\system32
regsvr32 shell32.dll

Then remove floppy disc, reboot.

Failing this try last known good configuration on bootup. If that fails then you will need to repair XP by booting from the XP CD.

 

Wouldn't the easiest option not be to boot from the XP CD, and select "Repair Existing Installation"?

K.

 

Yeh but then you lose some settings and all the registry setup for all your applications, meaning you have to reinstall your apps.

 

I didn't realise that

Best of luck with getting it sorted Dan

K.

 

Thanks for all your advice. I now have a good picture of what I need to do and will let you know when it works again and which method I had to use.

Dan

 

Hit F8, using an old keyboard as the fancy Logitech one wouldn't allow me to use the F keys, and used "run last known good config", it worked!!!!!!

I thought I'd be in for an evening of OS re-install, as usual when I have a problem.

Thanks for all your advice.

Dan

 

Congrats Dont u just love it when a fix works 1st time around